Hahnenkamm Defines Ski Racing Legend

The legendary Hahnenkamm is on tap to run this weekend in Kitzbuehel, Austria. With cold temps and some fresh snow moving in, it looks like this race is a likely bet to happen. SNEWS gets the update from the U.S. team before the race begins.

It's quiet in the Kitzbuehel start. The stark white walls wash away sound and blend into the glassy snow beyond the start wand. Ski tips slide toward the storied abyss below. The next two minutes are the most frightening and exhilarating in all of ski racing. This is the Hahnenkamm.

"You're in the start and you are amped at Kitzbuehel," says Steven Nyman. "You've got to get amped for this race because you just stare straight down and in three seconds you're going 60 mph and then the earth drops out from underneath you."

For 70 years, legendary names have crashed and conquered in Kitzbuehel. Champions such as Erich Sailer, Jean-Claude Killy, Franz Klammer, Hermann Maier and Daron Rahlves have been hoisted on shoulders and celebrated for swallowing nerves and staring down the Streif. Only the euphoria of victory can drown the roar of 60,000.

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

"Growing up, this is what you hear about. If you're a downhiller, you know what Kitzbuehel is," says Erik Fisher.

The U.S. Ski Team arrived last Sunday. Already, miles of wire are strung above the cobbled medieval streets. Hundreds of speakers are set to roll the pulsating crowd from the race hill flanks into a town-wide three-day party. Many fans and racers will head to the infamous Londoner, a local pub where athletes will man the bar - a tradition that started with the Canadians in the 1980s when they won the Hahnenkamm for three straight years.

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

Even before the first downhill training run, athletes feel the energy.

"Kitzbuehel is an unbelievable place," says Head Coach Sasha Rearick. "It doesn't take much to get the guys fired up. They come in here and are excited about it from the first day."

Bode Miller first felt it in 1998, but didn't attempt the downhill for three more seasons. Now, he and his skis are etched into Hahnenkamm legend, despite not yet winning the notorious downhill.

A 2008 skis on the A-Net ride to second place was in some minds, as good as victory. This season, warm air, rain and a night of snow has molded the Streif into a twisting washboard of ice similar to the track that sent him sailing toward the fence in 2008.

He was fourth in Thursday's training run, racing after Austrian Hans Gruger was helicoptered off the slope.

"Sure, it's dangerous, but that's the Hahnenkamm, it's dangerous either way," he says. "That's a big part of what makes this race so cool."

On Oct. 6, 2010, veteran journalist Peter Kray joined the SNEWS team and is now editor of the new SNEWS WinterSports channel. We trust you are enjoying the full offering of WinterSports news. Be sure to email your friends and let them know the best WinterSports news has arrived -- just in time for the winter season. Got WinterSports news? Send your WinterSports news to Kray at pkray@snewsnet.com. Subscribers can also post WinterSports news releases directly to the SNEWS website. Email us at snewsbox@snewsnet.com to learn about posting your own news releases, or for any other questions or comments. We love to hear from our readers!

New Mexico’s ski areas are 3-0 so far this summer in avoiding fiery catastrophe. As of June 28, 2011, the Las Conchas Fire, which consumed 60,000 acres of forest in just 48 hours, and resulted in the evacuation of the town of Los Alamos, had only resulted in spot fires at nearby ...read more

The American flag was at half-mast Tuesday in front of K2 world headquarters on Vashon Island, Wash. Just two days after the news of Doug Coombs' fatal accident, the ski world is left reeling. The impact of the loss is as profound as when the climbing world lost Alex Lowe in ...read more

Plenty of fresh snow -- including nearly 9 feet of new powder in Tahoe -- led to a banner President’s Day weekend at many ski resorts across the West and Pacific Northwest. Squaw Valley was reporting more than 7 feet of new snow heading into the weekend, while Alpine Meadows ...read more

A seemingly endless supply of snowfall and a late Easter have prompted ski areas from California to New York to extend their ski season--with a few even announcing tentative plans to keep the chairlifts running until July 4th. “With this much snow, Squaw Valley will have great ...read more

Is telemark skiing, two-planking’s sub-category of skill and style, already shrinking even further into its niche? After a short but spirited two- to three-decade resurgence of skiing’s original turn, anecdotal evidence would certainly say the answer is “yes.” In just a two-hour ...read more

While ski manufacturers and urban-based specialty retailers are worrying about the impact the boom in high-end rentals will have on the ski industry, a new wave of entrepreneurs sees it as an opportunity. Since its start in a one-car garage in Park City, Utah, in 2004, Bryn ...read more

After more than a year super-commuting between Seattle and Moirans, France, as Group Rossignol’s senior vice president of global sales and marketing, Tim Petrick was named president of Rossignol’s North American operation last week -- a promotion that will plant him now more ...read more

Former Dynastar/Lange President Chris Licata is back in the ski industry, joining Tecnica Group USA in a role described as “an advisor for the Tecnica and Blizzard brands.” Although still acting as president of Blake’s All Natural Foods, an organic food manufacturer in Concord, ...read more

The Skiing Commissioner Survey that SNEWS® posted on June 22, 2011, generated some interesting comments and phone calls, including one from an industry executive who rang up the office just to say, “We were worried all that smoke in New Mexico was going to your head.” Others gave ...read more